In a data processing system which comprises a general-purpose computer provided with D/B's and small computers (terminal devices) connected to the general-purpose computer, the terminal devices are used for the traffic of input and output data and the general-purpose computer performs a prescribed processing by using the input data and the data registered in the D/B's and, from the data obtained as the result of the processing, selects only pertinent data and causes them to be registered in the D/B's.
In the data processing system constructed as described above, the general-purpose computer is required to control the D/B's and, at the same time, carried out the data processing. When the general-purpose computer is provided with many terminal devices, therefore, heavy traffic of input and output data through the terminal devices has the possibility of causing temporary congestion of load on the general-purpose computer and consequent impairment of the computer's capacity for data processing.
In recent years, the work of editing a book has come to be carried out by the use of a data processing system which comprises a host computer provided with D/B's and personal computers and work stations (editing devices) connected to the host computer. In this case, the host computer performs a prescribed processing using the input data and the data registered in the D/B's and, from the data obtained by the processing, selects pertinent data and causes the data to be registered in the D/B's.
As described above in the conventional editing apparatus wherein the host computer is provided with many editing devices, heavy traffic of input and output data through the editing devices has the possibility of causing temporary congestion of load on the host computer and consequent impairment of the computer's capacity for data processing.
The drawback mentioned above is eliminated by interposing medial computers between the host computer having the D/B's connected thereto and the small computers handling input and output data, causing the medial computers to control the small computers and carry out data processing, and enabling the host computer to engage exclusively in controlling the input data to and the output data from the D/B's.
An attempt to employ as the host computer a large general-purpose computer which is serving as a common host computer for various data processing systems entails the following problem.
Specifically in the editing apparatus constructed as described above, when the transfer of data between the medial relaying computers and the large computer is effected by a real-time processing, namely a processing which comprises receiving demands or data for processing from time to time, immediately carrying out a processing thereon, and feeding out the result of the processing, the large-scale computer is compelled to stand in a suspended state waiting for the arrival of the input data from the medial computers even when the actual work of editing is not in progress.
The time in which the large computer is held in an idle state is long and, as the result, the time in which the large computer is used as the host computer for editing devices is proportionately long. Thus, there arises the possibility that the capacity for processing to be exhibited by the large computer in serving as the host computer for the other data processing system will be inferior.
The work of editing a book by the use of the data processing system is carried out by putting new text and illustrations in each of the pages of the book. The information for the book is memorized in the memory device page by page of the book.
In the conventional editing apparatus constructed as described above, the information of an edited book is stored in the memory device and controlled page by page. In the production of two mutually similar books such as, for example, handling manuals of automobiles mutually similar in style of coach, one set of stored information cannot be used in common for the two books, though the two books have many documents and illustrations in common. All the documents and illustrations, therefore, must be newly input for the pages of the new book to be edited. The production of such books, therefore, takes up much time and labor and proves to be expensive.
The conventional editing apparatus described above entails the following problems.
(1) In the conventional editing apparatus, the information of an edited book is available exclusively for processing by the editing apparatus. In other words, the information or data of the edited book cannot be utilized for the data processing system which carries out any processing other than the processing for the editing books.
Whenever some part of the contents of the information of the edited book is looked up or retrieved, it is needed to be attained either by the use of the editing apparatus or by personally reading the actually produced book. Incidentally, the editing apparatus or the terminal devices of the editing apparatus are relatively expensive. A scheme of having these items installed at various places within an enterprise, for example, is highly uneconomical and entails a grave inconvenience of having the produced books stored one each at the places of installation mentioned above and read personally.
(2) Further the information of an edited book is stored in the memory device page by page as described above. When a part of the information of the book edited is to be sought out by the editing apparatus, for example, since the information of the book is displayed in units of page on the display device, information of no interest is also displayed.
The work of seeking out any pertinent part of the information, therefore, cannot be carried out efficiently and proves to be highly intricate.
When a part of the information of the edited book is to be printed, parts of no interest are also printed out for the same reason as given above.
When a service manual or a shop manual covering an automobile or a motorcycle is to be edited, the reconditioning data which define the specifications and the standard numerical data of the component parts of the automobile or motorcycle must be produced. FIG. 34 is a table showing a typical set of reconditioning data for a motorcycle.
As illustrated in FIG. 34, the reconditioning data table is composed of designations of items such as "inside diameter of cylinder" and "outside diameter of piston," standard numerical (minimum and maximum) data of the items, and data of working limits. The conventional technique described above has entailed the following problems.
(1) The reconditioning data shown in FIG. 34 are entered in a service manual which is intended for distribution in Japan. The numerical data are indicated therein in units of mm.
When this service manual is to be produced in a version fit for distribution in countries using the yard-pound system, for example, the numerical values must be indicated in units of inch, for example.
When the motorcycle is manufactured in a country using the metric system, the numerical values in units of the metric system are converted into those of the units of the yard-pound system and the reconditioning data table is produced by using the data resulting from this conversion.
Since this conversion must be carried out by the editor of the service manual, the production of the table of reconditioning data and consequently of the service manual takes up much time and proves to be intricate.
(2) Where the numerical data are indicated in units of the metric system and their equivalents in units of the yard-pound system are additionally indicated as juxaposed thereto, since the numerical data in units of the metric system and those in units of the yard-pound system must be put in together, the production of the reconditioning data table and consequently of the service manual takes up much time and proves to be intricate.
This invention has been produced for the solution of the problems mentioned above.